Fort Recovery dominates second half (12/13/03)

FORT RECOVERY — For the first time in the eight-year series between Fort Recovery and Jay County, Joe Bruns was not on the bench for the Indians Friday night. New Tribe coach Brian Patch was more than happy to continue the Ohio dominance.

Fort Recovery won for the sixth time over the Patriots, rallying from a 12-point second half deficit for a 57-55 win on its home floor.

“It’s a big win,” said Patch, a Jay County graduate. “The first game at Kalida we were down by 10 at halftime. We’ve shown in two games that we can fight back.”

The victory kept the Indians perfect at home (4-0) against Jay County. Their six wins in the series have come by a total of 11 points, with none of those games being decided by more than three points.

“It’s the same story as usual when we play Fort Recovery,” said Jay County coach Craig Teagle. “It’s a great game. Both teams play hard. Usually it just comes down to the team that plays smarter at certain points.”

And in the 2003-04 version it was the Indians who came up big in the second half.

Fort Recovery (2-1) trailed by nine at halftime and by 12 early in the third quarter. But it was all Tribe from there.

The Indians cut the lead to one point with an 11-0 run in the third period, getting six of those points from senior center John “Bear” Bihn. Jay County momentarily found its offense with a field goal from Dustin Overton and a 3-pointer by Trent Bailey, but then it was another stretch of Fort Recovery domination.

The Patriots went scoreless for more than six minutes as the Tribe went on another run — this time 13-0. By the time Travis VanSkyock hit his only basket — a 3-pointer — to end the run, Fort Recovery had a 51-44 lead with fewer than four minutes on the clock.

Jay County fought back for a tie, but never reclaimed the lead as it fell to the two-point defeat.

“Offensively, we want to go to John (Bihn) inside,” said Patch. He’s our go-to guy. Everyone on this team knows that.

“We finally got John some touches where he could do something inside.”

And when that happened, Fort Recovery took control of the game.

Bihn had finished the first half 2-of-10 shooting with just four points, but found ways to get points on the board after the break. He shot 4-of-7 after halftime, added five points at the free throw line and dished out a pair of assists.

He and teammate Dusty Tobe worked the glass, getting the Indians valuable second and third looks. Bihn and Tobe led the Tribe to a 34-26 rebounding advantage, and each finished with a double-double.

Bihn had 17 points and 11 rebounds, while Tobe scored 14 points and pulled down 10 boards.

“We just found the open man and found the hole,” said Bihn. “The basket got bigger in the second half. Any time you get second chance shots it always helps.”

Following Bihn and Tobe were Tyler Wuebker and Sean Kahlig with seven points apiece. C.J. Tobe nailed two 3-pointers with six points.

Kahlig also grabbed five rebounds.

“That’s where they’ve always hurt us is on the offensive boards,” Teagle said. “Sometimes they just beat us to the basketball. They were aggressive, hard-nosed and just wanted it more than we did on the rebounds.”

Jay County’s top rebounder was freshman Corey Comer, who finished with six.

Teagle also said he wasn’t thrilled with his team’s shot selection. He said although they turned the ball over just nine times — compared to eight for Fort Recovery — the Patriots probably gave the ball away 10 more times on ill-advised shots.

They tossed up 24 3-pointers in the contest, hitting just seven for a 29 percent effort.

Trent Bailey paced Jay County with 22 points, including five of those 3-pointers. He buried three free throws with 3.1 seconds left to pull the Patriots within two, but they were slow to foul Greg Faller on the inbound and had no chance at a final game-winning attempt after Faller missed a free throw with .3 seconds left on the clock.

Dustin Overton added with 15 points and four rebounds for the Patriots. Mark Kelly tossed in seven points and added four rebounds and a pair of blocks before fouling out in the final minute.

Chad Keen scored all of his six points in the first half, and had five of his seven assists before the break.

Jay County will host South Adams today at 6:30 p.m. Fort Recovery travels to Tri-Village for a 6:30 p.m. start.

Junior varsity

Fort Recovery got off to a dominating start in the first half of the junior varsity game against Jay County and held on in the fourth quarter for a 46-41 win.

The Indians (2-1) scored the first seven points of the game before Zac Green finally broke through with a free throw for Jay County with more than four minutes gone from the clock. Still, the Tribe pulled ahead 15-2 before the Patriots — who shot just 4-of-17 for 24 percent in the first half — started to show any kind of offensive life.

Slowly but surely Jay County cut into its 12-point halftime deficit, tying the game early in the fourth quarter thanks to much-improved shooting (44 percent in the second half). Still, the Indians pushed the lead back out to six points at 41-35 on the way to the win.

Jason VanSkyock paced Fort Recovery with 10 points and eight rebounds. He finished 5-of-7 on field goals in the game. Ryan Staugler had nine points, eight rebounds, four assists and four steals.

Rhett Retter was the lone Patriot in double figures, finishing 5-of-6 for 15 points. Nick May scored seven points.

Cory Locke pulled down seven rebounds, and Retter had five.[[In-content Ad]]